May 31, 2006
Day -1: Leaving Home for Yorktown, VA
I was up before dawn this morning. I hadn't slept much the night before, and had been up until well after midnight, weighing stuff with a borrowed postage scale, trying to distribute all the weight evenly between the four panniers. I should have gotten all that done weeks ago, of course, but had been busy getting everything lined up at work for the last few months.
My friend Peter Chamness met me at my house around 6:30. He had agreed to drive me to Yorktown. Originally his wife Cay was going with us, thus allowing Peter to ride the first few days with me, but something had come up, and she couldn't make it. Peter was taking his bike anyway; maybe we could work something out, and do at least some riding together.
We stopped by my office for a minute where my father, theowner of the family business, was already there, reading the newspaper. I told him I would see him in a couple of months - his response was "Call me when you get to Pikeville (KY), and I'll come get you." He is not known for his pep talks. He had been one of the skeptics - probably more numerous than I'd realized - ever since I'd started talking about doing the trip three or four months ago.
It was a nice, cloudless day as we drove east. Soon after crossing the state line into West Virginia, we stopped for a quick breakfast at Biscuit World, which is apparently a regional chain restaurant. The waitress didn't seem amused by my "Uhh, do you have any biscuits?" query.
The day went by relatively quickly - I hadn't been on a longish road trip for years, and had forgotten how pleasant it can be.
Somewhere outside of Mechanicsville, VA, I spotted a guy pushing a fully loaded bike, and I had Peter pull over so we could talk to him. It was Jamie Compos, who I recognized from his CrazyGuyOnABike journal. His bike was missing its chain, and he was on his way to a nearby bike shop to get it fixed. He declined our offer of a ride - heprobably felt it would be cheating -, and after Peter took our picture, we drove on.
We arrived at the Yorktown Victory Monument around 5:00. A middle school band was practicing there, and while we walked around, one of the kids dropped his drum. The band teacher had him drop to the ground and do push-ups.
Originally I had planned to start my long ride tomorrow, but after talking it over, Peter and I decided to do some sightseeing and riding in the Yorktown/Williamsburg area tomorrow. I would ride towards Oregon the day after tomorrow.
We checked into the Duke of York Motel which was nice, but a little pricey, then had dinner at a local place that adjoined a yacht club.
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